Alright, so I know that I have already been in France for a little more than two weeks (yay!), but I was wanting to start a blog, but felt silly doing so, so far into my trip. But here I am on a Sunday morning posting my first blog entry.
The first two weeks have been crazy. The first was filled with tours, orientation, registration and just meeting people in general. Then this past week was the first week of classes. For once, I think that I am quite content with classes. Apart from my hour and a half commute both ways to class, it helps the days go more quickly. What makes it even better is that I only have class three days a week! This is of course not counting my internship which I have yet to receive confirmation about my location. The planned location is a store called "Artisans du Monde" and judging by the name, I think it would be a nice fit for me.
I guess I will backtrack to the week before class. We got here on a Friday and stayed in a hotel the first night. We had no agenda for that day so we were free to walk around the city, nap, whatever. I went out with a couple of new friends and we had our first of many paninis. I had gone out with my roommate, Simone, and we came back to a third suitcase in the room...3 strangers, 2 beds. Interesting situation! Anyway, on Saturday we work up and had a quick tour of the city, then we had a brief orientation, giving us quite a bit of vital information that we need while we are here. The afternoon was then purely devoted to us exploring, so again I went with a couple of friends. We bought our tram cards (32 euros a month....) and also bought our cell phones, a breed which I have not seen since the late 90s. Then at 6.30 that evening, we were expected to meet in the lobby of our hotel for our host parents to pick us up and take us to their house. We were all nervous, but relieved to finally be going to our final destination after several long days of traveling. So I met my "mom" and jumped in her van and off I was. No more Americans, no more English, just a complete feeling of faith that God put me in a safe family. And that he did. I live with a middle aged couple, who like to try and give my too much food. They feel badly when they don't serve meat with a meal and promise that the next meal we will have some meat. I guess they don't realize that I am a young, married, college student who finds that a meal with meat is probably a special occasion. They have wireless, but somehow couldn't get me a password that evening, so they offered to let me send a quick email to Chris from their e-mail address. I sent him a quick one letting him know that I had safely arrived at my homestay. It was then not too long until their friends came over for a traditional French meal, all courses included. After the hour and a half long meal, they dismissed me because they understood how tired I was. I think I slept about 12 hours that night.
We had the next day simply to rest. I spent some time talking to Chris and also my "mom" took me to a nearby park and we walked around a bit to get some fresh air. The next day we were to get a tour of the university campus, which was merely a group of 60 people walking up a path expected to figure out the campus. Entering the campus we were all quite confused. This was not a prestigious looking campus like one expects. Stone buildings, columns, history, trees. But rather what we were seeing was what looked like a scary high school built in the 70s. Bad old, not good old. Tape still left on the windows everywhere from the tacky posters that are hung everywhere, and barely a wall where you cannot find some sort of graffiti. We walked into a classroom who's desks were long tables with what I can only assume were 1000s of different carvings on them. We then had an academic orientation and took a placement test for our grammar class. After the test, we ate in the school cafeteria. This was France's version of La Bamba : Burritos as big as you head, but rather Cafeteria : sandwiches the size of your arm. They were just enormous! The afternoon was then again free time so we wandered around finding ourselves lost and unlost several times. When it was finally time to go home, I went to the bus stop leaving plenty of time to get lost before the sun went down...which was a good thing. I took a different bus than the one that I had taken to get to downtown. I get to my stop and get off....which way to turn?? I found myself wandering around the street for about an hour, asking every kind looking person if they knew where my street was. Finally I recognized my street and was all too happy to be home. The next morning we had another orientation. So again I left with plenty of time to get lost. I find a bus stop....ironically it was a different bus stop that I had never been to, but it luckily had the right buses that I needed. So I got on line 6. Waited and waited and waited for my stop "Comédie" It never came, and before long I found myself in the fairly residential area outside of downtown...well turns out only line 11 stops at comedie...not 6. So I rode the bus to the very last stop...got out and went the other way. I will spare the details, but I did eventually find my way to where I needed to be. Thankfully I was one of many who found it difficult to navigate the city. That afternoon we had a more in depth tour of Montpellier, where we learned that Montpellier is a "young city" being only 1000 years old. Ha. We saw a home that once belonged to a noble family in the middle ages, and then later saw a Jewish bath dating back to the 12th century I believe it was. The rest of the week was filled with more exploring and registering for classes.
Saturday morning we were to meet at the "Corum" tram stop to leave on our day trip to Nîmes and le Pont du Gard. The bus drivers called 5 minutes until 8 saying that they wouldn't be there until 8.30, so we walked over to the University of Minnesota's office to get out of the freezing cold! Our first stop was le Pont du Gard, an ancient Roman Aqueduct. It was enormous, and had a painfully boring museum to the side of it. After wandering around for a couple of hours, we got back on the bus and headed to Nîmes, an ancient Roman city. We had the first 2 hours to explore the city, which basically meant go somewhere for an hour and spend the next hour trying to find the meeting spot again. We met back at Les Arènes...basically a big Colosseum. From there we continued our 3 hour walking tour in the freezing cold. We saw practically all that the city had to offer. I don't know if it was simply because I "know" Montpellier better, but I preferred it much better to Nîmes. After a long, cold day, we headed back to Montpellier.
Then Monday classes started. My first class is a class that I must take in order to have my internship. Doesn't look like it will be too hard. Throughout the semester, we must write one 8-9 page paper in french about a topic relating to our place of internship, write a weekly journal about the internship and give one oral presentation about any article of our choice. This class takes place at the U of M's office. After this class, I head to Paul Valéry for my phonetics class. I have already taken french phonetics but loved it so much that I wanted to take it again! My day is then finished at that class and I can start my hour and a half commute at 2.15! Tuesday mornings I had nothing, but then switched my Thursday morning class to Tuesday morning. So I will have my conversation class (again at the office) Tuesday morning. After that I head to Paul Valery for my Translation class. This class has two sections. The first time that we meet the translation is English to French, and the second time is French to English. Last Tuesday we were to take a test that would place us into the appropriate class, but the professor never showed up....this is apparently not too uncommon for my university. We will be taking that test this Tuesday instead. Wednesday morning I go straight to the University for my three hour grammar and methodology class. After that, I head to the second part of my translation class, which is the French to English...so much easier! My hope is that I will have my internship Thursday so that I will have a 3 day weekend!!!
Yesterday was a neat day. I got to help my host mom make homemade mousse au chocolat, and macaroons. My host family loves having people over...this was the 4th meal that they have had friends come over since I have been here! But last night was really fun. We of course started with the apéritif. After that we joined around the table which had a hot stove on it. There were 3 plates of raw meat : duck, beef, and chicken. We each took what we wanted and cooked it ourselves. There were also 6 different dipping sauces that we could choose from. I preferred the curry! That last from 8 pm to midnight...that was an experience! My head was about to burst by the end!
I appreciate all that have been keeping me in their prayers....because I do need it. It is tough when you only get to see your husband for a one or if I am lucky two short periods of time each day. But Chris has been great...staying up into the wee hours of the morning so that I can wake up and talk to him before I start my day. I know that I am already 2 weeks into this, but 4 months just seems impossibly long. Luckily, Chris is going to come visit me in about a month, and I am beyond excited for that!! But it is not only that I miss Chris. I miss my best friends, Jarred and Laramie, and my parents, and my sister...and well all of my family. Some days I have the time of my life and complete appreciate the situation that I am experiencing, but some days I do feel so lonely and want nothing more than to just be home...even if there is tons of snow and coldness. I know that at the end of this four months I will be so happy to go home but probably also a little sad to leave. This is my home for awhile and I am trying to make it that.
Sorry, that was painfully long and I hope that it is not another 2 weeks until I post again.
A bientôt!
